Beacon’s Spirit Week Rivaled the Spirit of Beacon Students

Walking into school on Monday, two classmates approached me wearing identical outfits. Confused, I asked why they were dressed exactly alike, to which they responded, “Oh, it’s Twin Day!” Like me, most students seemed to have forgotten; these two girls were the only pair in all of my classes that day who were participating in Monday’s theme.

Whether you realized it or not, Spirit Week at Beacon has already passed. Four themed days with themes determined by the Beacon Student Government – Twin Day, Tourist Day, Pajama Day, and Sprit Day – took place the week of Halloween, the day that garners the greatest amount of enthusiasm. However, student involvement in Spirit Week felt strikingly low this year, especially considering that the current freshman class is nearly five hundred students. With minimal dressing-up outside of the more popular Halloween and Pajama Day looks, and an overall lack of awareness as to what the themes actually were each day for both students and teachers, I wondered if Beacon students lacked some school pride.

On Tourist Day, there were few students in Hawaiian T-shirts. Instead, many dressed up for Culture Day, celebrating their ethnic heritage. This was an idea many students found more engaging and even personally liberating. Perhaps, some students just didn’t want to wear tourist-themed outfits on their subway-style commute to school, lacked the time or energy to dress up in the morning, or simply weren’t aware of the day’s theme. Whatever the case may have been, it was clear that many Beacon students were not aligned with the Spirit Week plan.

Many students complained about the themes. Some said that if anyone in the student body was allowed to contribute or vote on ideas for Spirit Week, there would have likely been a greater amount of participation; it wasn’t necessarily that Beacon students were averse to demonstrating their school spirit but that students felt Spirit Week was not representative of their interests.

Hopefully, next year’s Spirit Week will provide new opportunity for engagement among the Beacon student body.